A week-long celebration of Tongan arts and culture will be launched on Monday 24 September at the Mangere Arts Centre - Nga Tohu o Uenuku, in New Zealand.

The Matala festival will feature dance, theatre, poetry, music with traditional and contemporary faikava, and bring together Tongan artists and members of the Tongan community for the second year running. The celebration is specifically for Tongan artists in New Zealand for the wider Tongan Community.

Matala means the blossoming of a flower, but in this sense it is but the blossoming of the mind, the arts and the talent within the Tongan community of Aotearoa and creating a platform in which to create, develop and produce new works to showcase within this week long festival.

The programme of events will feature:

• A major group exhibition of Tongan Artists - "No'o Fakataha"
• Professional Development Evening
• The writer of "Kingdom of Lote" presents a new Tongan theatre play "A Heart's Path"
• The first ever Tongan contemporary dance theatre show "HELIAKI"
• A live Poetry Night
• A celebration of traditional & contemporary kava "Kava Day"
• Auckland's 2^nd showing of the film "Tongan Ark"
• Live Artist demonstrations throughout the week by Visesio Siasau and Sopolemalama Filipe Tohi, Benjamin Work and tattoo artists.

-Press Release, Mangere Arts Centre / New Zealand Tonga Business Council Inc.